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<p>The year is 1994. You are reclining in your hotel room bed with a pay-per-view movie. The remains of your room service dinner, which you ordered by telephoning — from a phone connected to the wall by a wire — the front desk, sit on a table in the corner. You’re dozing off after a long day of meetings and sightseeing when all of a sudden you hear a beep-beep-beep. Your in-room fax machine is printing a document.</p><p>For years, there was no such thing as too much technology in hotel and travel amenities. In the 1970s, guests clamored for mini bars and HBO. The 1980s introduced electronic key cards and specialty phones. With the dot-com boom, the internet revolutionized both booking and guest communications. Now Wi-Fi saturates the hotel experience — from iPad check-ins to mobile room keys.</p><p>But with technology so readily accessible in everyday life, more people are viewing digital detox excursions as welcome escapes from connectivity. “Unplugged” retreats discourage guests from texting, posting, and gaming. And they’re charging for it, marketing device-free experiences as the ultimate in restful luxury, an exercise in living authentically, and a pure escape from the grind. The <a href="http://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-guide/new-york-city/hotels/mandarin-oriental-new-york" target="_blank">Mandarin Oriental New York</a>, for one, partnered with the Mayo Clinic for a customized wellness program. Once visitors surrender their phones with the hotel, they are treated to classes such as mindful journaling, coloring, or merely sitting silently. Crystals and essential oils sprinkle designated rejuvenation areas. While in the hotel’s custody, guests’ smartphones get cleaned and polished.</p><p>Tech-detox travel experiences are cornering wellness for the luxury set. Unplugging has become a new marker of wealth and leisure, that is, if active personal betterment can be considered “leisure” in the first place. But tech-mindfulness marketing and experiences leave out those with fewer resources, who could use the benefits of unplugging most of all.</p><p>“Detox” experiences aren’t new, says <a href="https://broad.msu.edu/facultystaff/drbonnie/" target="_blank">Bonnie Knutson</a>, professor at Michigan State University’s School of Hospitality Business. She remembers family friends visiting monasteries in the 1950s to escape the hectic pressure of modern life. There, they would remain silent for several days, without access to a daily newspaper or telephone.</p><p>What has changed is today’s consumer reliance on technology. A 2015 <a href="http://news.gallup.com/poll/184046/smartphone-owners-check-phone-least-hourly.aspx" target="_blank">Gallup poll</a> found that most Americans check their phones hourly; a <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/12/08/one-fifth-of-americans-report-going-online-almost-constantly/" target="_blank">Pew Research survey</a> found that one in five people reported being only “almost constantly.”</p><p>“Tech is with us basically from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep, and sometimes interrupting our sleep,” said Knutson. “Yet the brain can take only so much stimulus at any one time. At some point, it’s going to snap back.” It’s never been more important to take meaningful breaks.</p><p>Problem is, so few Americans have the option to unplug at all. Mobile devices that used to signal status are now ubiquitous — integral in managing a household, applying for jobs, studying, and communicating. To take time off from them is simply not as feasible for people with fewer resources, particularly time and money. In fact, consumers who make less money spend more time with the devices they purchase, according to a 2015 <a href="http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2015/all-about-the-benjamins-when-it-comes-to-media-habits-income-level-is-key-factor.html" target="_blank">Nielsen report</a>. And many can’t afford multiple kinds of tech access points, such as tablets, desktop PCs, or broadband internet. In 2016, one-fifth of adults living in households earning less than $30,000 a year were “smartphone-only” internet users, according to <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/01/chapter-two-usage-and-attitudes-toward-smartphones/#job%20seeking" target="_blank">Pew Research Center</a>.</p><p>Thus, the digital divide has shifted. Now information access for poorer Americans isn’t the only consideration. It’s that privilege lies in the ability to unplug at all. In fact, it’s the newest status symbol. Besides those swanky detox hotels, #vanlife and #cabinporn are lifestyle choices centered on disconnecting—and all but inaccessible to people with multiple caregiving obligations, health conditions, and more.</p><p>Roughly <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4926781/" target="_blank">10 percent</a> of Americans hold multiple jobs; those who do are 60 percent more likely to work weekend days than single jobholders. Those with multiple jobs are also more susceptible to unpredictable schedules, sleeplessness, and injury. “Detoxing” from those responsibilities—missing a shift or a family phone call—for any length of time is not as easy an option.</p><p>“[Tech] has introduced this element of endlessness, endless chaos,” said <a href="http://consumerresearch.georgetown.edu/member/neeru-paharia/" target="_blank">Neeru Paharia</a>, assistant professor of marketing at Georgetown University. “One gets stuck in it.”</p><p>As more humans continue to burn out on devices, the market for “getting away from it all” will widen, however, insists Knutson. She predicts budget hotels will offer crash courses in meditation, yoga, and highly social group events. Camping will regain popularity.</p><p>“It’s like <a href="http://www.travelandleisure.com/hotels-resorts/vacation-rentals/london-man-made-15-million-from-airbnb" target="_blank">Airbnb</a>,” she said. “It was primarily the millennials. Now grandma and grandpa look for Airbnb.”</p><p>The danger, then, is whether detox effects will stick, especially for those hard-pressed to practice regular tech-mindfulness. The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2017/07/30/your-digital-detox-isnt-as-radical-as-you-think/" target="_blank"><em>Washington Post</em></a>’s Megan Ward likens today’s digital detox offerings to “crash diets,” with a “goal [to] plug back in, better than before—to return to, rather than to smash, the machines.” At <a href="http://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-guide/peninsula-papagayo/hotels/four-seasons-resort-costa-rica-at-peninsula-papagayo" target="_blank">The Four Seasons Costa Rica</a>, visitors may turn over their phones to be stored in a hotel vault; if guests can make it 24 hours tech-free, they are ironically rewarded with a new iPhone case. Last year, Apple named meditation app Calm one of its <a href="https://developer.apple.com/app-store/best-of-2017/apps-of-the-year/" target="_blank">best apps</a> of the year. Even unplugging requires a battery charge.</p><p>”The iPhone was a luxury at one time. Now it’s a necessity,” said Knutson. ”So the idea of the holistic person who needs time out to recharge is exponential.” No pun intended, she adds.</p><p>Whereas vacations used to be about simply having fun, says Paharia, tech detoxes are about perfection, self-improvement, becoming better.</p><p>“It’s interesting how Americans can turn everything into a productivity exercise,” she said. Even disconnecting doesn’t necessarily mean letting go; it means improving, which “fits in well with the whole status mode.”</p><p>Today, luxury travel straddles both extremes: high-tech and no-tech. Some of the most exclusive accommodations are baking gadgetry into virtually every aspect of the visit. At specialty Starwood hotels, guests may order robot butlers for towel replacements or snacks. At Seattle’s Hotel 100, infrared sensors alert housekeeping when guests are inside the room. The NH Hotel in Berlin projects holographic meetings in hotel conference rooms.</p><p>It’s all certainly more exciting than the drone of a fax machine — but for how long, and for whom?</p>

<p>For some travelers, an airline is irrelevant; flight prices and schedules carry more weight than reputation or livery. But for others, an airline is an introduction to the destination, and a crucial part of the journey.</p><p>Flag carriers in particular are known for presenting a nation’s cuisine, flaunting the pennant colors, and presenting a distinct approach to hospitality.</p><p>And yet the United States — for all its patriotic-sounding (United) and red, white, and blue (American) airlines — does not have a national airline.</p><p><strong>Related:</strong> <a href="http://www.travelandleisure.com/airlines-airports/best-airline-gift-cards" target="_blank">The Best Airline Gift Cards to Give Every Type of Traveler</a></p><h2>What Is a National Flag-carrying Airline?</h2><p>Singapore Airlines is an exemplary flag carrier for Singapore, in both the financial as well as the symbolic sense.</p><p>For starters, the Singaporean government owns a majority share of the airline, making it a true national airline.</p><p>According to Tracy Stewart, editor of the airfare deal site <a href="https://www.airfarewatchdog.com/" target="_blank">Airfarewatchdog.com</a>, flag-carriers are “international [airlines] that are subsidized or owned by the country in which they are registered.”</p><p>Government-owned airlines, particularly in the mid-20th century, were considered “necessary to maintaining a strong position in international trade and national defense,” Ed Perkins, the editor of travel site <a href="https://www.smartertravel.com/" target="_blank">SmarterTravel.com</a>, told <i>Travel + Leisure.</i></p><p>Stewart also added that economically, national flag carriers could play a huge role in creating jobs.</p><p>But the Singapore-based carrier is also a national airline in the sense that it transports travelers to the Lion City long before lifting off the tarmac. Travelers have come to look forward to the meal service, which features <a href="http://www.travelandleisure.com/worlds-best/best-international-airline-food#singapore-airlines" target="_blank">traditional cuisine like <i>pak choy</i></a>,<i> </i>and the unflappable flight attendants (the iconic <a href="http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/singapore-girl-flying-college" target="_blank">Singapore Girls</a> who don customary sarong <i>kebayas</i>).</p><p>Likewise, the new South African Airways interiors incorporate colors pulled from the surrounding landscapes, and patterns and prints inspired by traditional African crafts and textiles.</p><p>“As a flag-carrying airline,” the airline’s head of marketing, Kim Thipe, <a href="http://www.travelandleisure.com/airlines-airports/national-airlines">told T+L</a><i>, </i>“we understand that we represent people’s first and lasting impressions of South Africa.”</p><p>But in many cases, Stewart added, “flag carriers seem to exist purely for the sake of optics, as a means of showing the rest of the world that a country has a seat at all the right global hubs, flag splashed across the fin. Countries like Greece and Belgium have managed just fine in the years since they scrapped their flag carriers, and we'll probably continue to see more countries do the same in the years to come.”</p><p>Like those aforementioned European countries, the United States has also done away with a single flag-carrying airline. Despite boasting names like American and United, none of the domestic U.S. carriers are true flag carriers — though that wasn’t always the case.</p><h2>What Happened to the U.S. Flag Carrier</h2><p>“Prior to World War II, the U.S. had a de facto international flag carrier in Pan American, which tried to retain that position postwar,” Perkins explained. “Instead, [the] U.S. government opted for competitive airlines.”</p><p>After <a href="http://www.travelandleisure.com/airlines-airports/history-of-flight-costs" target="_blank">the deregulation of airlines in 1978</a>, which officially removed government control over fare prices and routes, competition between airlines increased. And while fares dropped, airlines multiplied, and routes expanded, the United States turned from a single national carrier to favor a number of domestic and regional airlines.</p>

<p>Summer in <a href="http://travelandleisure.com/travel-guide/new-york-city" target="_blank">New York City</a> just isn’t the same without hot dogs, boardwalks, and roller coasters at Coney Island.</p><p>While locals see the stretch of beach to be an iconic part of the city, the Coney Island boardwalk has yet to receive landmark status — until now.</p><p>Meenakshi Srinivasan, chairwoman of the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, <a href="http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20180315/REAL_ESTATE/180319943/coney-island-boardwalk-will-likely-be-landmarked" target="_blank">said on Thursday</a> that the Coney Island Boardwalk will be added to the agency’s list of properties to consider for landmark status, <a href="http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20180315/REAL_ESTATE/180319943/coney-island-boardwalk-will-likely-be-landmarked" target="_blank"><em>Crain's New York</em> reported</a>.</p><p>In 2014, there was a push to give landmark status to the boardwalk, as a means to prevent parts of the wooden walkway to be converted to cement. At the time, <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/move-designate-coney-island-boardwalk-historic-site-article-1.2036827" target="_blank">City Councilman Mark Treyger argued</a> that concrete portions of the walkway sustained more damage from Superstorm Sandy than the wooden portions — meaning there is a practical as well as historical reason to preserve the site.</p><p>The proposal will still have to go through the proper approval process in order to be officially distinguished as a landmark. <a href="http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20180315/REAL_ESTATE/180319943/coney-island-boardwalk-will-likely-be-landmarked" target="_blank">According to <em>Crain’s New York</em></a>, the commission would be able to approve the status in spring or summer.</p><p>This would preserve and protect the boardwalk in the future, since any construction or renovations would have to be approved by the preservation commission, which is dedicated to <a href="http://www1.nyc.gov/site/lpc/index.page" target="_blank">preserving the historical accuracy of city architecture</a>.</p>